Japan has been quite an exciting ride for me in so many ways! I love learning about different cultures, and experiencing it all firsthand is a privilege I honestly never really expected to have. I read about Japanese culture on a lot of blogs before we came, but they all said the same things: bowing is common, you take off your shoes inside, be prepared for the humidity, the Japanese people dress very modestly and take sun protection to an extreme, 100 yen shops are awesome, that sort of thing. Here are a few things that I did not expect to see in Japan and sort of took me by surprise.
1. Boxy cars. Everyone talks about how small Japan is and how crammed everything is, but I never thought this would include vehicles! All their cars are very new and well maintained, because if it doesn't pass inspection, you are not allowed to drive it. And inspection is pretty meticulous. I didn't see one old car on the road, and I rarely saw ones that were not shaped like little boxes!
2. Complicated toilets. Okay, so I had been somewhat warned of this, but who knew going to the restroom could be so involved? A lot of places have "hole in the ground" toilets, which are actually nicer than you'd think. They are very clean and will even play music or make water noises while you go so people can't hear you...strange!
The western toilets are similar to ours, but the sink is the top of the toilet tank in order to conserve water. Basically, the water you wash with becomes the water for the next flush. All the buttons to the left are different functions of the toilet including heated seats, water noises, and who knows what else. I couldn't read the kanji, but it had a lot of functions.
3. Showers. Okay, so this one I had heard about a lot too but still didn't have a good picture in my head. They have whole shower rooms, with the shower part to the left and the tub to the right. You shower and then soak in the tub at the end of each day. We obviously didn't take the time to do this every night, but it was nice when we did!
4. Laundry. Japan does have washers, but few, if any dryers. Everyone hangs their clothes outside to dry. They have these nifty clothesline hangers that I sort of fell in love with. I nearly bought one to bring back to the States, but the suitcase was getting full. Still, they are fairly compact and can hang a lot at once! I did our laundry twice, and it wasn't bad, but I can't imagine having kids and hanging out all those tiny socks and onesies...talk about tedious.
5. Trash! Trash is so so so so soooo complicated in this country! There are very few trashcans around the city (this was in a park) and you have to get the right thing in the right bin. They have a combustible trash can, a plastics can, a cardboard can, and lot of others! I usually had to ask Daniel to throw away my trash for me because a lot of them are not in English and some don't even have pictures. So confusing. But again, Japan is very eco-friendly. Everything is recycled or burned, and landfills are basically nonexistent.
This is the chart hanging on mom and dad's fridge that explains what trash to put out on what day of the month. They only take certain trash certain days, and if it looks like you put cardboard in the plastics trash they are taking that day, they will not take it.
6. Weird English. I mistakenly assumed they would have most stores in Japanese writing with Japanese names. To a certain extent, that's very true. But hair salons especially seem to all be in English and it doesn't usually make sense. We drove past one hair salon called Fresh Salad Emotion. Um, no thanks! Don't think I am getting my hair done there . . . :D
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